Down We Go

Down Under that is!

Probably the best news I've got in a while. A flight from here(Singapore) to Darwin is only 65euro... I leave tomorrow. :)

But let's go back a few days...

Leaving Koh Tao:

Dave wasn't the happiest to be leaving due to it being savage:

I was done diving:

To give you and idea of how cozy the night boat(which takes around 8-9 hours from 9pm to 5.30 - 6am)Here's the size of the beds:

Meanwhile, I had a 6'5" Dutch giant, his wife and kid sleeping in beside my 'bed', of course the giant lay in the one beside me, he had probably eaten his other two children for breakfast. Ah no, I felt for him, he wouldn't have fit in two beds even. I also walked some white paint half way around the boat, so looking back, I took nothing only pictures and left nothing only footprints like they always tell you to! :)

After the night boat, we were stuffed into a tuk-tuk and off to wait about an hour in Surat Thani for a minibus. Note the mid morning faces:




It came and took us 5 to 6 hours down to the almost border town of Hat Yai. One of a few cities according to Dave that are blacklisted for tourist due to terror alerts(worst case was 70 attacks in one day). A short wait here, but long enough for our bellies to long for some food. We needed something substantial, something very substantial, something that would sit in the stomach for days, something that wasn't rice or vegetables....

That's right...

Pizza Hut!

- after our shameful return to western food, we were ready for the next leg of the journey. A bus to take us the entire length of Malaysia and into Singapore. What a journey! Over all from Koh Tao it took us around 37 hours I think. Exhausting, but full of strange happenings that kept us going. Having said that, some things happened that were terrible. Poor Dave had the unfortunate experience of seeing several young people pulled from a wreckage as we passed.

Considering the journey we took, we don't look that bad:

A quick waddle down towards Singapore city centre to look for accommodation was on the cards.
See this hotel:


- well it's not ours. But the tiny white one to the left is our hostel!

Never in my life have I been so stared at. Well maybe in Vietnam....(Remember that Shane!)

We proceeded through the streets, very afraid to break the law. Death by hanging and the cane are still very much in use here. Which seems strange in a city so obviously trying to westernize itself.

Anywhoo, we decided to head onto the district of Little India. What a place. If you're ever here, you should definitely make the effort to go there. I've never been to India, but this is pretty damn close to what I imagine it's like:

I got more stares here than before. People would stop in their tracks, tug on their loved ones and point at us, or stop mid sentence when we got close. Twas gas!

A wander through a local market:


The crown jewel of Little India for both of us was Dave's call. The temple to the Goddess of Destruction: Kali. Popularised in Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom, this was a very surreal experience. I got some great field recordings in the temple of chants and beats, and even managed to squeeze a few pictures of things:

Here's the very detailed roof, when the Japanese bombed back in the day, the surrounding people took shelter in the temple, believing the Goddess would protect them, and they were right! One of the only places in the area left untouched.

Next time you here from me, should hopefully be from Darwin! Well as you can tell, the internet is also super speed here, so I managed to shtick up a load of pics. I'll leave you with this slightly odd one: